Kentucky Basketball: Julius Mays’s One-And-Done Epidemic

Mar 9, 2013; Lexington, KY, USA; Kentucky Wildcats guard Julius Mays (34) reacts during the game against the Florida Gators in the second half at Rupp Arena. Kentucky defeated Florida 61-57. Mandatory Credit: Mark Zerof-USA TODAY Sports

Last year’s leader for the Kentucky Wildcats, Julius Mays, led the team to a first round exit in the NIT. The inexperience of Kentucky last season was the reason for the faults they had along the road. Julius Mays was the natural candidate to tackle the leadership role, in which the Wildcats needed desperately after Nerlens Noel’s mid-season injury. However, he just wasn’t ready to do it at the beginning.

“It was tough at first because this past year I played a position I had never played before really by playing the two-guard, and coming off a lot of screens and off-ball action as opposed to playing the point guard,” he says. “So I was learning the ropes and the roles myself. It was such a shaky season and a lot of guys weren’t buying into what Coach Cal was saying so I felt like I had to step up because I knew the message he was trying to get across.

“And if Coach Cal wasn’t getting the right response from them, I felt like it was my job as the older guy to be that leader and carry coach’s message to the other guys. I feel like toward the end of the season I really became comfortable in that leadership role, but I probably waited too late to get into that because I was not totally comfortable at first with my on-court role and our system.”

By mid-season last year, Julius Mays was the only Kentucky player that Calipari trusted. Mays led the entire team in minutes played per game last season. Without the aid of Julius Mays for the Kentucky Wildcats last season, things would have looked a lot worse than what we saw over the course of the year.

Julius Mays led the Kentucky team last year with his true poise and stability that he presented on the basketball court. The high basketball IQ that Mays acquires proved to be effective and got the team through up and down situations. Over the course of the season, Julius Mays not only gained a whole lot of respect from John Calipari, but from his younger teammates as well. At one point during the season, Archie Goodwin told the media that Mays was the type of person he would be in touch with for the rest of his life.

“It means a lot,” Mays says about his relationships with last year’s freshmen. “I’m the baby in my family, I have four older sisters, and I never had any brothers growing up. So the bond I was able to have with those guys, and their willingness to accept me immediately and treat me like their big brother, and they were my like my little brothers, was really special. It’s something I will always cherish.”

Mays also had a true relationship with the Kentucky Wildcat fan base as well.Kentucky fans are a special breed. As Mays says, “They live, die, eat, sleep and breathe Kentucky basketball.” Rupp Arena gets filled up every single game, and the fans always show up to give the players support. The players are treated with top respect, and are a great example to the University of Kentucky. Even though the season didn’t end so well for the Kentucky Wildcats, Julius Mays still holds his head up high.

“To me, the outcome wasn’t what I wanted, but the experience was great,” Mays says. “That’s how college basketball should be. Even a lot of the guys at this workout were asking me what it was like to play there, and I’m sure they played at big schools with their own tradition, but Kentucky is one of a kind. There is nothing like it, you are like a rock-star living in Lexington and playing for UK. If I could have made the decision again, I would have made it 10 out of 10 times.”